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That’s why she has a little something for everyone at her bakery Pure Decadence Pastries, located in the Mail Depot building on Liberty Road S in South Salem.

Some of her specialties include crinkle cookies, true snickerdoodles, chocolate marshmallow cookies, tiramisu, cannolis, croissants and just about anything a customer will ask for including a daily selection of sugar-free, gluten-free and vegan selections.

She doesn’t shy from challenges either.

“One good customer wanted me to make a refrigerator cake with Jell-O and pudding inside,” she said.

Olson has been baking since she was 6 years old. Her grandparents, of German and Swedish decent, taught her almost everything she knows. It is also tradition in her family for the skills to be passed from generation to generation.

She is one of 24 grandchildren, and her grandparents taught the older kids how to make traditional breads like lafsa, a Scandinavian bread made of potatoes; and jule kaga, a Scandinavian fruit bread.

The breads are typically made during holidays, and it’s an all-day process. She is now teaching her third cousin how to make them.

But on a day-to-day basis, Olson has a fresh variety of baked goods in her display cases at the small bakery with French-style decor.

She said she does not use preservatives, so patrons best consume their goodies within a day or two for ultimate freshness, although some customers buy in bulk to freeze.

Before Olson opened her own business two years ago, she was a baker for Fred Meyer for about 20 years.

One of main the reasons she decided to branch out and open her own shop was to fulfill her parents’ and her own wishes of owning her own business.

“It was their dream for us (she and her brother) to do what we love,” she said.

Both of her parents, also entrepreneurs, died when she was in her late 20s. When she was ready, her uncle helped her find the location with plenty of foot traffic.

Baking, owning her own business and making people smile is enough for Olson at the moment. She has no plans to expand from her one-person shop at the depot.

“This suits me just fine,” she said. “People always leave with a smile.”

esperez@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6740 or on Twitter @ElidaSPerezSJ

Pure Decadence Pastries

Where:

4740 Liberty Road S in the Mail Depot

Hours:

8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays